Catholic school contracts unleash debate

Bishop Fenwick High School in Warren County is among more than 90 Cincinnati Archdiocese schools in Southwest and West-Central Ohio where teachers will have to sign a new, more restrictive employment contract for next school year.(Photo: The Enquirer/ Michael D. Clark)Buy Photo

While some Catholic teachers on Friday were getting their first look at their new, more restrictive contracts, some school parents said they already like what they see.

Schools in the Cincinnati Archdiocese have begun distributing new teacher employment contracts for next school year. For the first time the individual contracts detail prohibited sexual, fertility, abortion and relationship practices.

It also forbids supportive public statements on those and more at the risk of being fired.

Since The Enquirer first reported on the new contract, a vigorous public debate has ensued with some contending it is overly intrusive in teachers' lives while others back the new detailing of personal restrictions for classroom instructors.

The new rules are fine with Catholic school parent Beth Pucko.

"If they are going to teach my kids religion, then teachers should live it," Pucko said of the Catholic doctrines that are intermingled with K-12 academic instruction in archdiocese schools.

On Friday, she joined other parochial school parents waiting for their children outside Warren County's Bishop Fenwick High School at the end of the school day.

The mother of three children in archdiocese schools said no one has forced non-Catholics – or those who disagree with the religion's doctrines – to be employed in Catholic schools.

"Teachers don't have to work here. There are plenty of public schools that will take them," said Pucko.

Fellow Fenwick school parent Laurie Hojak agreed, saying "I made the choice that I want my children here to get a Catholic education with Catholic values."

Continued Hojak, who has two children in parochial schools: "If you are teaching at a Catholic school you should have Catholic values."

Archdiocese officials notified school principals Thursday they may proceed with their own school timetable in distributing the contracts to teachers.

Fenwick school officials, however, said they don't plan to present the one-year individual teacher employment contracts until next week. They declined to comment on the 2014-15 school year contract's new provisions.

Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Cincinnati Archdiocese, said, "Our principals haven't yet had the opportunity to fully present the contract to our teachers. So far, we're hearing a lot of informational questions, but not yet widespread concern.

"We are not getting many phone calls and emails at this point. In any situation we tend to hear more from people who disagree with us, so it's not surprising that all of the reactions were negative.

"Whatever we do will please some people and displease others," he added. "When principles are at issue, we can't be driven by that."

The new contract obtained by The Enquirer has doubled in size and is strikingly different from previous archdiocese teacher employment agreements.

For the first time, it details prohibited practices such as gay "lifestyles" or public pronouncements endorsing homosexuality, out-of-wedlock relationships, abortions and fertility methods that go against Catholic teachings.

Each teacher must sign the contract, which explicitly orders them to refrain "from any conduct or lifestyle which would reflect discredit on or cause scandal to the school or be in contradiction to Catholic doctrine or morals." It also bans public support of the practices.

More than 2,200 Greater Cincinnati parochial teachers will be affected by the new contract, the archdiocese estimates.

Still, Hojak has some sympathy for teachers whose personal values clash with the church and for archdiocese officials who have taken on controversies that have seen school employees fired and dismissed, sometimes leading to lawsuits against officials.

"I understand why they (the archdiocese) are doing this new contract with the lawsuits," she said.

Shannon Hartkemeyer, a Catholic school parent in Butler County, said "it appears that the diocese is taking a proactive approach clarifying their policies and expectations to provide a defensible position." ■